Privacy & Cookies

Introduction

What are 'Cookies'?

Cookies are small text files which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website or application. Your web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome) then sends these cookies back to the website or application on each subsequent visit so that they can recognise you and remember things like personalised details or user preferences.

Cookies are very useful and do lots of different jobs which help to make your experience on websites as smooth as possible. For example, they let you move between web pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving your experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

They are referred to as session or persistent cookies, depending on how long they are used:

1. Session cookies only last for your online session and disappear from your computer or device when you close your browser.

2. Persistent cookies stay on your computer or device after the browser has been closed and last for the period of time specified in the cookie. These persistent cookies are activated each time you visit the site where the cookie was generated.

What types of cookies do we use?

When you use our website, the following categories of cookies may be set on your device:

1. 'Strictly necessary' cookies

These cookies are essential in helping you to move around our websites and use their features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies, services you may want to use, such as completing complicated forms on the www.paradigmhousing.co.uk, cannot be provided. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you've been on the internet.

2. Functional cookies

These cookies allow websites and applications to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. The information these cookies collect is usually 'anonymised' - which means we can't identify you personally. They do not gather any information about you that could be used for selling advertising or remembering where you've been on the internet. We use these types of cookies to improve your experience on our website. Some examples of how we try to do this may include:
- Remembering your preferences and settings. This might include drop down menu selections, form input, disability settings (such as text sizes and colours).
- Remembering if you've been to the site before so that messages intended for first-time users are not displayed to you.
- Supporting social media components, like Facebook or Twitter (where a website uses a plugin from these third party platforms, for example).

3. Analytics cookies

We use web analytics services to help us understand how people use them. For example, we can see which parts of the website are most popular, identify which pages are more relevant, identify when errors occur and test different versions of a page or feature to see which one works best. These web analytics services may be designed and operated by other companies on our behalf. E.g Google Analytics. They do this using small invisible images known as "web beacons" or "tracking pixels" that may be included in the website. These are used to count the number of times something has been seen. These web beacons are anonymous and do not contain or collect any information that identifies you.

Cookies allow web analytics services to recognise your browser or device and, for example, identify whether you have visited our website before, what you have previously viewed or clicked on, and how you found us. The information is anonymous and only used for statistical purposes. It allows us to track information, such as how many individual users we have and how often they visit our websites. Web analytics data and cookies cannot be used to identify you as they never contain personal information such as your name or email address.

4. Targeting cookies

We do not use cookies to assist in targeted advertising.